Agreste Akumatized
by quicksilversquared
Summary: Fashion shows are always a stressful time. Outfits have to be finished, shoes and accessories must be ordered, models need to get into shape. One thing going wrong can mean absolute disaster…and in Paris, disaster means someone's going to be akumatized.


Gabriel Agreste did not think that he had _ever_ been quite so furious in his life.

He had ordered that no food or drink be _anywhere_ near the gowns, or in the prep area in general. Everyone, including models, had to wash their hands after eating and when they first came in for the day, just to ensure that no food crumbs or grease stains got on the clothes. Only water was allowed in the work areas, and even that sometimes got restricted when the piece was one that could only be dry-cleaned.

So it made absolutely no sense when one of the new interns decided to bring her latte into the workroom, despite the numerous signs declaring that such an action was against company rules. How the idiot girl even got near his finale piece with the forbidden beverage was an even bigger mystery.

And naturally the cup got upended in the madness, right onto Gabriel's prized finale dress.

The entire workroom was silent and frozen when Gabriel stormed in, only minutes after the accident. The room supervisor had called Nathalie the second the accident happened, and she in turn called Gabriel. He had not been happy to be pulled away from ironing out the last of the show's details, and he was even less happy to find out that a piece had been ruined.

And of course it was the piece with hand embroidery.

"You complete and _utter_ idiot!" Gabriel bellowed at the dark-haired intern that seemed to be shrinking by the minute. "That dress took _months_ to make! There is a _reason_ I don't allow drinks other than water in the room, and this is exactly why! Explain yourself!"

The girl muttered something inaudible.

"Speak up!" Gabriel demanded, scowling. "Why did you bring a coffee into the workroom, and why did it even go anywhere _near_ such an expensive dress?"

"I didn't want to be late and I didn't have time to finish it before I got here," the girl wailed.

"Being late can be excused! _This_ -" Gabriel gestured to the dress. "Cannot be. You are _fired._ Nathalie, please deal with her and write a note on her company record as to _why_ she was fired."

"Yes sir," Nathalie said immediately. The intern had broken down into another round of tears, likely knowing full well that any dreams she had in fashion had likely just gone down the drain. Being blacklisted by Gabriel Agreste would look bad on _anyone's_ record.

"Figure out how to salvage the dress. Any requests for materials can go through the normal routes. I want this piece to walk in the show." Gabriel's furious gaze scanned the room. "Understood? And absolutely _no_ food or drink in the workroom except for water. Anyone breaking the rules will be fired on the spot, ne exceptions." With that, Gabriel stormed out of the workroom.

Of all the _idiot_ things to do. The finale piece was the result of hours upon hours of work from his best seamstresses. The show was in only two days, and would have all of the biggest fashion names from Europe showing. He couldn't afford to have some stupid mistake like that take out the most impressive piece of his line.

Even worse, that dress was modified from one of his wife's last designs before she vanished. It had originally been intended for a runway show over four years ago, and he had only now worked up the strength to pull out her designs again.

Gabriel was so busy fuming that he didn't even notice the dark butterfly land on his designing tablet. Seconds later, everything went black.

* * *

Adrien was playing the role of a human pincushion when Nathalie found him. He had heard his father's yelling from two rooms over. It didn't take long at all for the news to trickle into the other rooms.

The finale piece, designed mostly by Adrien's mother, had been ruined by an intern spilling coffee over the intricate skirt.

"We should leave soon," Nathalie informed Adrien, speaking more to the tailor fiddling with Adrien's outfit than to the boy himself. "Once this set is done, meet me out in the hallway."

"This is the last outfit anyway," the tailor spoke up. "Adrien, take the jacket off. That one is perfect."

Minutes later, Adrien was changed back into his street clothes and headed out into the hallway. He had barely set his hand on the doorknob when the screaming started. Everyone in the room froze, many holding their breath.

Before anyone could protest, Adrien slipped out the door.

* * *

Chat Noir slid through the halls, edging past the rampaging Designer. He suspected that the fight hadn't been noticed outside the building, and he _needed_ Ladybug to be here now. He could only hope Chat Noir could attract enough attention to get the attention of a news station, and hopefully Ladybug's attention as well. He hopped into the elevator and slammed the button for the main floor. While the elevator descended, Chat pulled up the Ladyblog and messaged Alya to ask her to post news of the attack.

Thankfully, there was a news van outside the building reporting about the upcoming fashion show. In his hurry, Chat Noir nearly mowed down the reporter as he shot out of the door, practically a black blur in his hurry. The entire crew stared, and he immediately pasted a charming grin onto his face.

"Chat Noir! What are you doing here? Is Ladybug here? Has there been another attack?" The reporter shoved her microphone into Chat's face and he barely resisted the urge to take a step or two back. _Did they not understand the concept of personal space?_

"There has been another attack, yes. I was actually hoping for a bit of help in getting Ladybug's attention." Chat smiled again, trying to mask his hurry as much as he could. His father was up there somewhere, and all of the already-overworked seamstresses. "So, if there's any alert system set up, maybe activate it now? I can only do so much with containing the akuma without my lovely partner."

"Of course, Chat Noir!" The reporter looked absolutely thrilled as she turned back to the camera. "You heard it here first, citizens! Another attack is underway in the Agreste fashion building. Ladybug, please come quickly before the attack breaks out of the building!"

With a thankful nod, Chat Noir ducked back into the building and started running up the stairs, back up to where the Designer was terrorizing the sewing rooms. Amusingly, more than one of the seamstresses had foregone hiding from the Designer in order to get the runway pieces safely out of the way of the supervillain. A couple were even still working on the outfits, sewing at the machines or beading. Apparently Gabriel Agreste struck even more fear into their hearts than the supervillain did.

Chat didn't know if he should laugh at that or not.

* * *

Marinette sat in front of her computer, carefully beading a new purse for Tikki as she listened to the news about the upcoming Fashion Week. The reporter was outside the Agreste building, discussing the order of events and the various designers that would be showing. They were just moving on to discussing preparations for the runway area itself when Chat Noir shot out of the building like a cannon and appealed to the reporters for help.

"Oh no! I wonder who got akumatized!" Marinette exclaimed, almost dropping her bag before realizing that it would upset her bead tray. Instead, she carefully set her project aside and put the lid back on over the beads before standing. Spilling her seed beads would be an absolute disaster. "We have to get over there and help! They can't afford to lose much time to an attack this close to Fashion Week. Tikki, transform me!"

* * *

Chat Noir was busy dodging the scissors the Designer was flinging at him when Ladybug shot into the room. The walls were already studded with scissors embedded several centimeters deep.

Possibly more alarming were the seamstresses that were _still_ working. It was incredibly apparent that Chat Noir had been spending most of his energy protecting the workers while simultaneously trying to persuade them to leave their pieces behind and get to safety.

"We have to get this dress redone!" one of the women insisted. "The skirt was ruined by an intern's coffee, and it took a month's worth of work in the first place. We can't waste _any_ time!" There were several nods of agreement.

The Designer gave a unholy shriek at the words and flung more scissors. Chat deflected them, sending several clattering to the floor and several more into the walls.

"Where is he even getting the scissors from?" Ladybug asked, ducking behind the barrier of Chat Noir's spinning baton.

"His tablet. I think he used it to design things." Chat Noir knocked away a few more scissors. "He was throwing pincushions earlier, so I don't know if he can only throw so many before switching to a new sewing-related projectile."

"I hope that that doesn't indicate a trend." Ladybug knocked aside another scissor. "Do you know who it might be that got akumatized?"

"I'm assuming that it's Mr. Agreste," Chat Noir said, stepping forward to try to drive the Designer back. "He was yelling a lot only minutes before the akuma arrived."

Ladybug nodded, thankfully not asking Chat what he had been doing in the fashion building and instead focusing on alternately protecting the still-working seamstresses and trying to figure out a plan of attack.

The scissors attack soon turned into lashing measuring tapes, then showers of pins and needles, then seam rippers, then rotary cutters. Thankfully they had managed to lure the Designer into the hallway, allowing the seamstresses to continue their work safely.

"I'm so glad these suits protect us from everything," Chat Noir panted as a rotary cover embedded itself a full seven centimeters in the wall next to his arm. Next to him, Ladybug nodded in agreement.

"We need to finish this quickly," Ladybug spoke up, deflecting another projectile. "I'm sure Mr. Agreste has plenty of work to do, and most of the workers are still hiding."

"Smart of them." Chat Noir winced as the Designer's tablet lit up again, signaling another change in projectiles. The grin that lit up the akuma's face told them that whatever was coming next was impossibly _worse_ than the rotary cutters.

The next second, both superheroes dove aside as a sewing machine flew straight towards them. It exploded against the wall, sending bits of metal and plastic flying.

"This would be a lot more intimidating if any of these actually did pierce our suits," Chat Noir commented, trying to circle around behind the supervillain. Ladybug sent him an annoyed look.

" _Chat._ "

"What?"

"Don't give him any ideas, kitty," Ladybug chided. She let out a yelp and dove aside as a sewing machine knocked through her yo-yo and kept going straight for her. It missed her arm by only centimeters.

"I think it's time to end the fight, Bugaboo," Chat Noir panted as he whacked aside another machine. He could feel the kickback from when the heavy machine hit his staff. "There's even bigger machines than this in the workshop, and those could be dangerous."

Ladybug nodded and, dodging another machine, tossed her yo-yo into the air with a cry of " _Lucky Charm!_ "

* * *

Once the battle was done and Ladybug's hoard of ladybugs had set everything right, it didn't take long for things at Agreste Fashion to go back to normal. Models and seamstresses alike returned to their spots within the minute. Mr. Agreste got up, dusted off his suit, accepted his fixed tablet, and headed back into the workroom with Ladybug to re-access the damage. As it turned out, the bodice was fine and the skirt could go from a single uninterrupted piece to panels without compromising the design.

"Two days should be plenty of time to replace the front panel," Mr. Agreste commented, watching as two senior seamstresses measured and pinned the skirt into even panels and cut out the damaged section. "A little bit of embroidery over the seams will hide them pretty well, too. Thank you for the suggestion, Ladybug. I'm afraid I let my emotions get the better of me and prevent me from thinking up a solution."

"It's a gorgeous piece," Ladybug commented, wincing as her earrings let out their second beep. "It would have been a shame if it couldn't walk."

Mr. Agreste nodded, his expression softening as he reached out and ran a hand over the top of the dress. "Yes, that would be a shame. This was one of my wife's last designs and I was looking forward to seeing it on the runway. It's a real showstopper."

Chat Noir straightened up, suddenly more interested. No _wonder_ his father had been so furious. He had known that his mother was a designer as well as a model and that there were designs of hers that had never seen the light before. He had been too young to be interested in the designs before his mother vanished, and he had only seen pictures of her outfits since.

Minutes later, with Ladybug gone and Adrien transformed back, he entered a workroom that was significantly calmer than it had been only half an hour ago. His father was conferring with one of the seamstresses working on the finale dress, sketching out the changes they would have to make. It was hectic, but it was _normal_ hectic.


End file.
